Re: [Simulchaord-discuss] The world on a screen

[Paul Fernhout]

Paul Fernhout wrote:
> Here is a link to a new interview in the Atlantic with Jonathan Rauch on
> "Artificial Societies":
> 
> http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2002-03-29.htm

It turns out, this interview relates to a larger article on artificial
societies. Here that article is:
  http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/04/rauch.htm

Intro:

"The new science of artificial societies suggests that real ones are
both more predictable and more surprising than we thought. Growing
long-vanished civilizations and modern-day genocides on computers will
probably never enable us to foresee the future in detail—but we might
learn to anticipate the kinds of events that lie ahead, and where to
look for interventions that might work."

Later:

"The science of artificial societies is in its infancy. Whether toy
genocides will truly be relevant to real ones remains an open question.
But the field is burgeoning, and a lot is going on, some of which will
bear fruit. "

Conclusion:

"Today's universities and think tanks are full of analysts who use
multivariate equations to model the effects of changes in tax rates or
welfare rules or gun laws or farm subsidies; I can easily envision a
time, not long from now, when many of those same analysts will test
policy changes not on paper but on artificial Americas that live and
grow within computers all over the country, like so many bacterial
cultures or fruit-fly populations. The rise and refinement of artificial
societies is not going to be a magic mirror, but it promises some hope
of seeing, however dimly, around the next corner"

Some animations are here:

  http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/04/rauch-movies.htm

Shows how much can be done with just a simple checkerboard-like cellular
automata interface to display the output of various rules.

-Paul Fernhout
Kurtz-Fernhout Software 
=========================================================
Developers of custom software and educational simulations
Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com